Kickoff summary
And now for a short summary of the Kickoff Events of September 26, 2009…
9:00 AM to 1:00 PM – Morning Event – World Café discussion
Event participants were greeted in the morning by a full spread of free food donated by local businesses, followed by a welcome from Mayor Kitty Piercy. Participants were given an introduction to the plan and the day’s activities from CEAP Coordinator Matt McRae, and listened to a passionate call to action by a local student.
A panel discussion then gave audience members the chance to voice their concerns about climate change and energy, providing inspiration for the world cafe-style discussion that followed. Participants moved through a number of small discussion groups, linking conversations and ideas in an atmosphere that encouraged citizens to share their thoughts in a respectful and focused way. As voices filled the NEHS cafeteria, it was hard not to notice the creative energy and shared sense of concern for our future wellbeing building among them.
Exactly what came of all this discussing and idea-generating? We were able to identify and rank the issues many of you are most concerned with; where you think we can, and must, make a move. Here are the top five you came up with:
1. Strengthening local food systems – Building our capacity for growing, processing, and distributing more of our region’s own food (including calorie crops like beans, grains, meats, potatoes, and dairy), increasing food systems education, and strengthening our local economy and social connections in the process.
2. Increasing and improving alternative transportation - Making it easy and affordable to choose alternatives to the personal vehicle with better infrastructure, more public transit trips and routes, and more appropriately directed subsidies. Making it harder to choose energy-intensive modes with a gas tax.
3. Confronting the consumption issue - Using public media campaigns to address excessive consumption.
4. Shifting the city’s policy mentality - Putting all land use, transportation, and purchasing policies through a climate and energy filter.
5. Encouraging individual behavior change - Creating action plans for personal change in all areas related to climate change: food, water, consumption, etc.
(For a full list of topics generated in the morning event, please visit our wiki here.)
2:00 PM to 5:30 PM – Afternoon Event – Self-directed discussion groups
The second half of the day revolved around similar activities–and more free food–drawing on the collective intelligence of the whole group and generating ideas for action that will lay the foundations for the plan.
An open space discussion was, well, opened, during which participants created their own topics and joined the discussions most important to them. Here are some of the questions that came up:
First Session:
- How can we use art to engage people in climate change & peak oil issues?
- Will involuntary simplicity be our only choice as climate change & peak oil converge?
- How do we expand our conversation?
- How do we encourage a passion for nature & climate among members of our community?
- How do we increase and utilize youth involvement?
- What do we need to be happy?
Second Session:
- How do we shut down the coal plants?
- How do we promote a steady-state (no-growth) economy?
- How can we increase food production? How does preservation and sharing of food at the neighborhood scale come into play?
- Can resource sharing be coordinated on the internet?
- Is “victory speaking” a useful way to talk to schools and the greater community about climate change?
- How can we coordinate individual green development efforts, i.e. with things like sewage and hot water?
Many thanks to all who participated, your presence at this event and future topic discussions is critical to the success of this plan. For more information on future opportunities to get involved, check out our topic discussions, listed here. The first of these (on Buildings and Energy) will be held next Tuesday, October 6th, from 6 – 9 pm in the EWEB community meeting room.